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Republican, Democrat write Pa. marijuana bill

Two state senators, one a Republican and the other a Democrat, said Monday they plan to introduce a bill to legalize a certain form of marijuana for medicinal use in Pennsylvania in an effort to help children who suffer seizures and potentially many others, including patients suffering through chemotherapy.

Sens. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, and Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, said their bill would help ensure Pennsylvanians can get medical benefits from cannabidiol, or CBD, a compound found in marijuana that is credited with various medical applications without providing a high.

It is the first time that a medical marijuana bill has been drafted with bipartisan support in the Senate, Leach said.

Under the bill, Pennsylvania doctors would be limited to prescribing medicine derived from marijuana that has a higher amount of CBD than marijuana's psychoactive chemical, known as THC, Leach said.

It would not be addictive or psychoactive, and could be used in place of pharmaceuticals that are toxic, addictive or riddled with side effects, Leach said.

"There is no rational reason not to support giving a child this medication," Leach told a Capitol news conference packed with supporters of legalizing medical marijuana.

It can be delivered by dropper for children and pill form for adults.

Two Pennsylvania mothers of children with epilepsy, including one boy who has a rare and sometimes deadly form called Dravet syndrome, appeared with Leach and said they believe it can control their children's debilitating seizures.

"My plea today to the government is to leave the doctoring to the doctors," said Dana Ulrich of Reinholds. She said her daughter Lorelei, 6, suffers some 400 seizures a day.

Leach also has sponsored a bill that would legalize marijuana for personal consumption. He said the bill he is introducing with Folmer would not allow the full range of uses of medical marijuana that are allowed in other states, but is the broadest concept so far for which he could get bipartisan support.

"We are trying to accomplish the achievable," Leach said.

Folmer, a Republican, did not attend the news conference due to the death of his mother. In a statement, he said "medical cannabis" could provide help to children who suffer from seizures and cancer patients suffering through chemotherapy.

25 facts about marijuana

25 facts about marijuana

The 25 facts in this slideshow come from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

1. Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States.

2. It is a dry, shredded green and brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves derived from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa.

3. The main active chemical in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC for short.

4. Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (joint) or in a pipe. It is also smoked in blunts, which are cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and refilled with a mixture of marijuana and tobacco. This mode of delivery combines marijuana's active ingredients with nicotine and other harmful chemicals.

5. Marijuana can also be mixed in food or brewed as a tea. As a more concentrated, resinous form, it is called hashish; and as a sticky black liquid, hash oil.

6. Marijuana smoke has a pungent and distinctive, usually sweet-and-sour odor.

7. Scientists have learned a great deal about how THC acts in the brain to produce its many effects. When someone smokes marijuana, THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to the brain and other organs throughout the body.

8. THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the "high" that users experience when they smoke marijuana.

9. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentrating, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.

11. Research has shown that, in chronic users, marijuana's adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.

12. Research into the effects of long-term cannabis use on the structure of the brain has yielded inconsistent results. It may be that the effects are too subtle for reliable detection by current techniques.

13. A similar challenge arises in studies of the effects of chronic marijuana use on brain function. Brain imaging studies in chronic users tend to show some consistent alterations, but their connection to impaired cognitive functioning is far from clear. This uncertainty may stem from confounding factors such as other drug use, residual drug effects, or withdrawal symptoms in long-term chronic users.

14. Long-term marijuana abuse can lead to addiction; that is, compulsive drug seeking and abuse despite the known harmful effects upon functioning in the context of family, school, work, and recreational activities.

15. Estimates from research suggest that about 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana; this number increases among those who start young (to about 17 percent) and among daily users (25-50 percent).

16. Long-term marijuana abusers trying to quit report withdrawal symptoms including: irritability, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, anxiety, and drug craving, all of which can make it difficult to remain abstinent. These symptoms begin within about 1 day following abstinence, peak at 2-3 days, and subside within 1 or 2 weeks following drug cessation.

17. A number of studies have shown an association between chronic marijuana use and increased rates of anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia. Some of these studies have shown age at first use to be an important risk factor, where early use is a marker of increased vulnerability to later problems. However, at this time, it is not clear whether marijuana use causes mental problems, exacerbates them, or reflects an attempt to self-medicate symptoms already in existence.

18. Chronic marijuana use, especially in a very young person, may also be a marker of risk for mental illnesses - including addiction - stemming from genetic or environmental vulnerabilities, such as early exposure to stress or violence. Currently, the strongest evidence links marijuana use and schizophrenia and/or related disorders.

19. High doses of marijuana can produce an acute psychotic reaction; in addition, use of the drug may trigger the onset or relapse of schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals.

20. Marijuana increases heart rate by 20-100 percent shortly after smoking; this effect can last up to 3 hours. In one study, it was estimated that marijuana users have a 4.8-fold increase in the risk of heart attack in the first hour after smoking the drug.

22. Research clearly demonstrates that marijuana has the potential to cause problems in daily life or make a person's existing problems worse. In one study, heavy marijuana abusers reported that the drug impaired several important measures of life achievement, including physical and mental health, cognitive abilities, social life, and career status.

24. The potential medicinal properties of marijuana have been the subject of substantive research and heated debate. Scientists have confirmed that the cannabis plant contains active ingredients with therapeutic potential for relieving pain, controlling nausea, stimulating appetite, and decreasing ocular pressure.

25. Scientists continue to investigate the medicinal properties of THC and other cannabinoids to better evaluate and harness their ability to help patients suffering from a broad range of conditions, while avoiding the adverse effects of smoked marijuana.

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